N. Korea on high alert to deter influx of new flu

SEOUL, May 6 (Yonhap) -- North Korea said Wednesday there are no cases of influenza A in the country, but it is on "high alert" to prevent the inflow of the highly infectious virus spreading across the world.

North Korea's state media have been quick to report the global epidemic since it
was first reported in Mexico late last month. South Korea confirmed its second
case of the new flu on Tuesday, a week after the first infection was confirmed.
The official Korean Central News Agency said the country is "intensifying
preventive actions against swine flu on high alert" and carried an interview with
an official of the State Emergency Anti-epidemic Commission, an organization
established in 2008 to cope with bird flu.
"The country has (not yet) witnessed any case," Pak Myong-su, vice chairman of
the quarantine commission, was quoted as saying.
Pak said foreigners entering the country, especially those from outbreak areas,
are strictly quarantined at border regions and that visitors who are suspected to
carry the virus are put in isolated medical surveillance until their statuses are
confirmed.
North Korea is storing anti-virus medicines to cope with a possible outbreak, and
It is also strengthening checkups of pork, pork products and wild boars "as never
before," he said.
The country has upped publicity efforts to enlighten ordinary citizens and set up
a diagnosis system for distinguishing the common cold from the A-type influenza
"from the center down to the local areas," he said.
Seoul officials said South Korean border traffic is continuing as usual. Hundreds
of South Koreans daily travel to their factories in a joint industrial park in
the North's border town of Kaesong.